In my constituency of Cork North-Central-----

The truth is bitter, lads.

In my constituency of Cork North-Central, my constituents are struggling with rising rents, long waiting lists and lack of accommodation. People are talking about who we are going to blame, whether we are going to blame Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael or Independents, but until we get together in this House and work on solving this crisis without blaming or attacking one another-----

-----without shouting one another down, that will do nothing for the father living in his car tonight, depending on Wi-Fi from a hotel while working 50 hours a week. It is not going to help the constituent who came to my office last week, who spoke to me about the full-time job he is doing and yet living out of a car. It is not helping the mother in Cork city who is going into the housing department to be told, "Sorry, there is nothing for you, go into a homeless crisis centre with your children". It is not going t…

I will talk about the programme of Government 2025 vis-à-vis my city and constituency of Cork North-Central. To my mind, this plan does not go far enough. With the exception of Luxembourg, Ireland is the richest country in the European Union but the plan does not show ambition. It does not go far enough for the people of Cork and certainly does not go far enough for the people of Cork North-Central. Regarding the housing crisis and the housing emergency we are in, this Government says it will build 300,000 houses b…

I welcome Ryan McKeown and his partner here. I have no doubt they will sit here one day. They are welcome to Leinster House. I turned on the TV recently in my house and purely by chance saw a rerun of "Oprah". I immediately saw what happened in the programme for Government. Instead of it being "You get a car, you get a car", it was "You get a Ministry, you get a Ministry, you get a Ministry and you get a Ministry". What a fantastic day to give out Ministries. Our Taoiseach told us that the Government needs to appoi…

I congratulate the Government and the newly appointed Ministers. This is a special day for them and their families. The Government that has been presented to us tonight is like a shabby, broken down house that has had a slap of paint thrown over it. The hope is that it will all be fine on the night, lads. That is what this Government is. I read the programme for Government. I thought I would be in for a long night's reading. I was shocked to find out that this programme for Government is a copy of the previous prog…

I congratulate the Ceann Comhairle on her new position. I have so many people to thank for electing me and trusting me, not just the people of Cork North-Central but also my campaign manager, former Deputy Noel O’Flynn, who served in this House from 1997 to 2011. I thank him most sincerely for everything he has done for me as my father and of course as a Deputy. He was the one who really taught me that you must stand up for what you believe in, even if you stand alone. To the people of Cork North-Central, I thank t…